“I’m like, whatever you want me to be. I’m the flavor of the day”: A mixed-methods study of the food dispositions and behaviors of mixed-race individuals

Abstract

There is a dearth of research on how food serves a tool for the formation and enaction of the social identities of mixed-race people, how these social identities shape the unique food dispositions and behaviors of mixed-race individuals, and how, by virtue of their liminal status, mixed-race consumers are apt to blend and adapt food behaviors from their dual heritages, and subsequently diffuse these adaptations into the broader population. This mixed methods study, entailing semi-structured interviews with mixed-race individuals, followed by an international survey involving 645 mixed-race consumers living in Canada, the USA, and the UK, aims to address these knowledge gaps. Induced from the qualitative data, we disclose four overarching themes regarding the food practices and perceptions, in relation to our mixed-race informants’ identity and their position astride two cultures: (1) ‘you are what you eat’ (food as instrumental for ethnic identity), (2) ‘mixing the best of both worlds’ (integration and transmutation), (3) situational authenticity and awareness of cultural appropriation, and (4) double marginalization, denigration, and self-valorization. The quantitative findings revealed that blending cultural customs, blending food practices, and using products to express mixed-race identity, were all a positive function of the racialized-minority parent’s ethnic maintenance, as well as both independent and interdependent self-construals—demonstrating that racial and cultural blending promulgates these behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are elucidated.